The Couple That Sings Together

“It’s not often that a fortunate operagoer witnesses the birth of a star!” critics hailed for Danielle Talamantes’ recent role début as Violetta in La Traviata. This season, Talamantes debuts with VA Opera as Beatrice in Daniel Catán’s Il postino as well as performs Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen with the Helena Symphony. Additional soloist appearances as soprano soloist with the Pensacola Symphony in Verdi’s Requiem, the Eugene Concert Chorale in a Beethoven Celebration, a world premier for soprano soloist, choir, and orchestra at her Alma Mater, Virginia Tech, the masterwork Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, another world premier of the rhapsody written for soprano and orchestra based on T.S. Eliot’s iconic The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and finally, a third world premier, Kohelet, by acclaimed composer

Henry Dehlinger with the Santa Clara Master Chorale.This past season, Talamantes performed Violetta in a debut with Hawaii Opera Theatre in their production of La traviata, Mimì in La bohéme with Fairfax Symphony and in a return to The Metropolitan Opera to reprise the role of Frasquita for their productions of Carmen. In addition, she appeared as a soloist in multiple classical masterworks including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Faure’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall, Verdi’s Requiem with Fairfax Symphony and the National Philharmonic, Fauré’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with Eugene Concert Choir, Händel’s Messiah with La Jolla Symphony, Elijah with DC-based Choralis, and in the National Philharmonic’s Bernstein Choral Celebration concert.

In recent seasons, Talamantes performed the role of Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Princeton Festival; Mimì in La boheme with the St Petersburg (FL) Opera and Symphony of Northwest Arkansas; the title role of Susannah with Opera Roanoke; Anna in Nabucco and Frasquita in Carmen with The Metropolitan Opera; Violetta in La traviata with Finger Lakes Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Cedar Rapids Opera Theater; a début at Spoleto Festival USA as Sergente in Veremonda. Additional concert works include Mozart’s Requiem with Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Cathedral Choral Society, and Fairfax Symphony; Brahms’ Requiem with National Philharmonic, Choralis and St. Mary’s College; Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras No. 5, Bach’s Magnificat, and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with the National Philharmonic; Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Handel’s Laudate pueri dominum, and Charpentier’s Te Deum with The City Choir of Washington; Händel’s Messiah with Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, United States Naval Academy, National Philharmonic, The New Choral Society, and Austin Symphony & Chorus Austin; Poulenc’s Gloria with Arizona State University’s Symphony Orchestra; Verdi’s Requiem with Choral Artists of Sarasota and the Oratorio Society of VA; soprano soloist in Bob Chilcott’s Requiem at Alice Tulley Hall; Dvořák’s Stabat Mater at North Carolina Master Chorale; Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Manchester Symphony Orchestra; and recitals and masterclasses with El Paso Pro-Musica, Rutgers University, Washington & Lee University, James Madison University, Point Loma University, and Catawba College.

Talamantes recently released her debut album, Canciones españolas, to critical acclaim and her sophomore album, Heaven and Earth, A Duke Ellington Songbook is an exciting crossover into jazz. Both albums can be found on the MSR Classics label.

Kerry Wilkerson’s solo career has taken him from coast to coast performing renowned oratorios and exciting recitals. A resonant singer with unique evenness in register, the Washington Post has described him as an ‘exuberant’ performer having the ‘amber tone of a lyric baritone with the imposing weight demanded by Handel’s low-lying writing’. He has enjoyed a celebrated career as a member of the United States Army Chorus; singing and conducting for world leaders, Supreme Court Justices, politicians and dignitaries of many nations during official ceremony and protocol events.

In addition, Kerry has sung professionally with the US Air Force Singing Sergeants and the critically acclaimed Robert Shaw Festival Singers in many of the most prestigious concert halls throughout the United States and Canada. Kerry is well known to Washington, DC audiences through his solo recitals and regular guest appearances with choruses and orchestras such as the Händel Choir of Baltimore, the National Philharmonic Orchestra, City Choir of Washington, Choralis, and the Oratorio Society of Virginia. The 2018/19 season includes performing the role of Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Opera Roanoke, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with American University Chorus, Händel’s Messiah with the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with Spokane Symphony, Faure’s Requiem with Eugene Concert Choir, Kodaly’s Te Deum with Oregon Music Festival, Bach’s B minor mass with City Choir of Washington, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Choralis and Durfle’s Requiem with the Washington Chorus.

Kerry’s Carnegie Hall debut was made in June of 2017, as baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Sancta Civitas, presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). Highlights during the 2017/18 season included performances with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Bach’s Magnificat, Händel’s Messiah with Austin Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Fairfax Symphony and as a featured artist in a Bernstein & Friends concert with Close Encounters with Music in the Berkshires.
Kerry is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (B.M.) and George Mason University (M.A.).

American composer Henry Dehlinger stands out in the world of contemporary classical music. Hailed by Gramophone for his “vibrantly colorful palette” and "exquisite piano-playing," he has produced an impressive catalog of music for choruses, chamber ensembles, orchestras, and solo vocalists. Fourteen of his compositions—three choral works, one chamber work, and ten art songs—made their world premieres this 2019-20 season alone.
Henry’s musical vocabulary exemplifies a modern but tonal American aesthetic. Merging classical and vernacular elements, he renders themes from a diverse palette of musical styles to amplify the texts he sets. These rich musical fragments are then woven into meaningful aural experiences that Audiophile Audition calls “stunningly superb” and "formidably essential listening!"
Noted New York musicologist James Melo observes, “Henry Dehlinger has been one of the most successful practitioners of polystylism, a distinctly 21st-century musical style that draws from multiple influences, genres, traditions, and techniques. He is also a major champion of vocal and choral music, and his polystylism allows him to chart a wide range of emotions, allusions, and images.”
Equally celebrated are his stylish arrangements of the Duke Ellington Songbook. With their melodic lines and edgy vocal and piano writing throughout, they have achieved widespread appeal. Fanfare Magazine calls them "superbly judged, from the lyricism through to the stride.”
Henry’s recent projects include Kohelet, an epic cantata in five movements for mixed chorus, soloists and orchestra. Co-commissioned by the Washington Master Chorale and the Santa Clara Chorale, it combines lush, modal melodies, energetic meters and colorful harmonic textures with Hebrew text from Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, premiering at the National Philharmonic at Strathmore, is a sweeping rhapsody for voice and orchestra that Henry adapted from the famous poem by T.S. Eliot. Composed for Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes, it uses the melodic and rhythmic contours of Eliot’s stream of consciousness narrative to dictate mood and melodic character.
Henry’s choral works are accessible to a broad range of ensembles and have been performed by professional, volunteer, and high school choruses from across the country. His choral songs adapted from poems by James Joyce—Night Piece, Strings in the Earth and Air and Bahnhofstrasse—are especially admired and continue to be performed.
His vocal chamber repertoire includes Preludes of T.S. Eliot, a setting of Eliot’s four-part poem that explores themes of modern urban life, and Amore e ‘l cor gentil sono una cosa (“Love and the gentle heart are one and the same”), a love sonnet from La vita nuova by Dante Alighieri and the composer’s wedding gift to two of his closest friends.
Henry’s eagerly awaited fourth album is scheduled to be released in fall 2020. At That Hour is the world premiere recording of Henry’s compositions for solo voice and marks the beginning of his association with AVIE Records, the UK-based independent classical music label. It was recorded over three days at Sono Luminus studios in rural Boyce, Virginia, with soprano Danielle Talamantes and bass-baritone Kerry Wilkerson and produced by Grammy-winning producer Erica Brenner.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Henry grew up studying piano and voice. His mentors were piano virtuoso Thomas LaRatta and choral conductor William "Doc" Ballard, artistic director of the San Francisco Boys Chorus, both of whom Henry credits for his early success as a musician. He earned a reputation as a prodigious talent, singing with the San Francisco Opera and performing with major orchestras under conductors such as Riccardo Chailly and Edo de Waart. He later graduated from Santa Clara University where he studied piano with Hans Boepple.